Athena Ghoststalker

Born in 1289 AE, Athena was raised in a Blood Legion fahrar in Grothmarr valley. At first, she was a bit of a rebel, always sneaking out and finding ways to break into things, until she got her hands on a gun. While her first shot went wide, it's ability to strike things so directly at a distance caught her attention, and from then on she made it her business to learn everything she could about them. By the time she was 15, she was out-shooting almost everyone her age(even becoming a three time marksmanship champion in the annual Meatober competitions), and as her fahrar transformed into a proper warband, she found herself designated their sniper overwatch. While she heard grumblings from some of the others in a similar position, with some even passing the role around their warbands, she didn't mind it in the least. Though she'd never say it out loud, she was happiest when it was just her and her guns.

At first, as the latest Steel warband in the Legion, they were kept on routine duty in Grothmarr, patrolling for nests of Flame Legion infiltrators or striking at their hideouts.Not all went according to plan, however, and a close encounter with an escaping shaman taught her to value her pistols just as much as her rifle, which proved itself far more unwieldy to use in close combat. Before long, they had proven themselves, and as a gesture f good faith were sent to Ascalaon proper, to reinforce the Iron legion's lines.

Her warband's next several years were mostly an extension of the first; dealing with rogue Flame Legion agitators, but also with the occasional Ascalonian ghosts, or humans venturing from their remaining stronghold of Ebonhawke. While the Flame Legion's disruptions disgusted her and the ghosts frustrated her with how they constantly revived, the humans themselves earned a modicum of respect from her. Such frail, weak things, yet they could stand up to the charr on almost equal terms.

She also found a side benefit of her new posting. While she wasn't Iron and had no interest in machinery as a whole, the Black Citadel had plenty of facilities for working on firearms, and she was able to borrow a book here, a magazine there, and before long she began to tinker with a spare pistol. A bit more range, a slight adjustment to the sighting, slightly stronger charges - individually, they weren't much but taken together, she was able to improve the lethality of her guns in ways the makers clearly hadn't intended. If any of the gunsmiths took notice, they wisely kept it to themselves, but it was not long after before maintenance on her guns was purely left to herself. Another "onerous" duty that she found quite likeable.

It was around this time that she also developed a taste for alcohol. Never on duty of course, but between assignments she could often be found at one of the bars in the Citadel, an ale on one side and her gun half-disassembled on the other as she worked to clean it from the day's work. It was one of the few times that others outside her warband found her sociable, as she was more than happy to gush over her latest tweak to her weapons, so much so that a few started calling her half-Iron. They stopped quickly however after a few near-"accidents" reminded them of how good of a shot she actually was... at least in public. Regardless, it soured her a bit to the company of others unless she was sufficiently in her cups for her wariness around them to drop.

As the calendar ticked over to 1316, an announcement was made of a special celebration for the 200th anniversary of the defeat of the Flame Legion and Kalla Scorchrazor's victory. Part of the Black Citadel's festivities was a marksmanship contest, with the prize being a rifle homaging Forge Ironstrike, who dealt the final blow to the traitorous Flame Imperator who struck down Kalla. Competition was tough, but Athena managed to eke out a win, earning the right to the rifle, despite a few grumblings from a couple Iron Legion warriors who had fancied it for themselves.

Within days after she had received it, Athena had already begun to work on improvements to its chassis. The underslung chamber housed an enchantment to cause it to light up for show, but with the help of an elementalist in her warband it was expanded to absorb the recoil of firing, and infuse the bullets with a layer of fiery energy. The scope was refocused and tweaked to her specifications, and the trigger mechanism's tension adjusted to just enough to provide her a smooth release. Borrowing some Iron equipment, she even honed the rifling, adding several hundred meters to its range. A couple warband members teased her about the fiery light giving away her sniping position, but on the next mission she brought it along, and proved it made no difference with a record kill count. As she pronounced afterwards, if any dared make it close enough to be a threat, she would simply introduce them to her pistols. With its effectiveness proven, she gave it the name, "Predator."

And so things went, as the world around them began to change. Kralkatorrik awoke, branding portions of Ascalon and bringing human and charr together against a common foe. Next came the ogres, vying for charr lands. But most unexpected of all was a strong push from the Foefire ghosts. While the Legions held their ground, Athena's Steel warband was decimated. The highest ranking officer left was one who Athena had never gotten along well with, but his ambitions took it beyond even that, pushing them into a confrontation that ended with a bullet between his eyes. Disavowing the Steel name, Athena joined with her last remaining fahrar sister to found a new warband: Ghost, in honor of their fallen fahrar siblings. Unfortunately, their first assignment was then to hunt down Athena's former sire, who had abandoned his post. While his reasons were ultimately sound, his actions ended in failure, and judgement was made. Athena herself performed the final duty, meeting him in honorable combat and ending his life.

Things only accelerated from there. She barely had time to get her metaphorical feet under her before the newly formed Pact called on her in the fight against Zhaitan, citing her previous service among the Order of Whispers. Leaving the new warband in her sisters' charge, she took up arms alongside the other races, and joined in the push to, and into, Orr. And no sooner had Zhaitan been felled and her warband reunited, than word came of a second Elder Dragon stirring: Mordremoth. This assault went far more disastrously than the previous one, stranding her in the jungles of Maguuma alongside a small platoon of Pact soldiers. Her familiarity with guns came in handy here, as she was able to maintain the platoon's guns in the humid environment. Though she didn't ask for anything, a chronomancer among the platoon noted her facility with twisting shadows to step across short distances and showed her how to twist time itself instead around herself or her target.

Dragons came, and dragons fell. A human god awoke, and was slain by the renowned former Commander of the Pact. Then came the Charr civil war, as Athena's former Imperator broke with the Legions, and the now 43-year-old charr found herself torn. Her loyalty was to the charr, but she had learned the value of working with and alongside the weaker races. There were now two Blood Legions, but which should she stand with? Ultimately, her doubts were dispelled when those who had left became corrupted by Jormag, with this new "Frost Legion" reminding her of the Flame Legion of old. That, she could not abide. A few of her warband chose otherwise, but she learned later that they fell at the hands of the Commander in the Drizzlewood assaults, as did the warband that had taken up the Steel name after she had abandoned it. If nothing else, it proved to her that the name was cursed.

With things somewhat resolved in the Shiverpeaks, Athena returned to duty with the Pact, bringing along several newer members who were curious about her experiences in the Dragon Wars, as they called them. There was still plenty to do out there for a middle-aged charr veteran. The infamous Commander had a nose for finding trouble, and old soldiers like her needed to be ready to join the fight, wherever it may be. For the Legions, For the charr. For Tyria.

Athena was inspired by another major Guild Wars character, originally. In the Living World Season 4 set of stories, which filled in events after the Path of Fire expansions, we met a former priest of Balthazar, the God of War, named Zafirah. Though I won't go into it because of spoilers, she was seeking revenge, and had taken over a ruined fortification where she was able to take out anyone who approached with her sniper rifle. She also helps the Commander later with more of her effective sniping in a later part of that season of Living World episodes. As a real in-world example of the Deadeye thief spec, she sold me on actually making a thief, as before I wasn't really interested in the class.

Now I wanted to make a charr, of course, and I didn't really have any major Blood Legion characters yet, so I thought I'd go that way. It helps too that I ran into two other examples of Blood Legion snipers, though I can't recall if I ran into them both before or after creating her.

• In the Blood Legion personal story, you actually assign one of your warband-mates to sniper duty, showing that while the Blood Legion is the front-line, in-your-face legion, they are smart about it. It's not just a Ash Legion or Iron Legion thing!
• In the Icebrood Saga(which came right after Living World season 4), you get to see another Blood Legion warband in action, who also have a dedicated sniper, though again I can't go into real detail without including spoilers

In coming up with her look, the one I was happiest with ended up feeling older, so I skewed her age to more along the lines of Rytlock's generation, as the intended Commander is suggested to be on the younger side when you start the game in 1325 A.E. As of the initial writing of this profile, we are in 1338 A.E., so even if she is not the Commander, she's bound to have Seen Some Shit(tm). Particularly given the Charr civil war that I can't really go into detail on because, you guessed it, spoilers.

Unfortunately, rifle is a bit tricky to play in some content, so I don't use it in-game that often on her, but I chalk that up to "the right weapon for the right job". Dual pistols is a weapon setup that came into its own a few years before the time of this writing, so I picked that up, and when she needs to get in something's face, well, time to start blasting! After all, as I said, the Blood Legion is the front line soldiers, so she wouldn't be one to shrink from that. The rifle is more for when it's time to start sniping, like the characters that inspired her. There's always the possibility of dual daggers as well(which she even carries on her backpack of weapons), but she was envisioned as a gun nut, so as long as they remain viable, that's what she'll be using.